Syeo86

2007 987.1 Cayman S

I few years ago I picked up a cargraphic exhaust from a local P-car owner. Bolted it up, and it has been on the car ever since; roughly 4 years. This past weekend, I took the car out for a spin, and stopped at a Starbucks to grab a coffee. Upon firing the car up, I noticed a lot of burble, like I had an aggressive cam. I know these cars can burble during cold start, but at this point the car had been driven for 30 mins. I got home, checked the exhaust, and noticed the passenger side tip was hanging low. A quick peek under the car, and I noticed the balance pipe's weld had completely cracked. I'm not exactly sure how this happened, but either way I pulled the exhaust off the car.

The question is, do I completely remove the balance pipe? or do I have it welded back?

I'm not against removing, so long as I don't lose any power. I could careless about "drone".

Does anyone have experience with fabbing exhausts for the 987.1? Would removal of the balance pipe cause a loss in power?

Pep!RRRR

I was told once by a race shop that the balance pipe does aid power slightly.

Syeo86

Removing the pipe would make the exhaust much easier to install, and I wouldn't have to worry about stress on the welds.

If it is negligible, I'm more keen on removing the pipe.

I've reached out to cargraphics to get their thoughts as well.

blacksheepSpyder

"I'm not exactly sure how this happened,"

Do you have teenagers?

Syeo86

No. I'm the only one that drives the car...

Does that make me a teenager?

Soul Performance

Did you notice any significant power loss or flat spots in the cars performance on your drive home with the cracked talk pipe? If not, I would not expect you to feel much of a difference if you were to delete it.

Syeo86

Unfortunately I was stuck in friday traffic, and didn't really romp on the car. That and my usual daily drive is a torque monster so any of my other cars always feel anemic in the 2-4k range.

Cargraphics did respond to my email. They have updated the design on the exhaust to include a flex joint on the balance pipe.

JCtx

So free replacement???

na94

Cracked in the chill zone. I don't know much about normalizing SS, but I would talk to a qualified welder. I would not attempt to repair that one.

Syeo86

I've queried to see if they would provide a free replacement. I'm not the original buyer, and purchased the exhaust used. On one hand the warranty has expired, and I'm not certain it could be transferred to me. However, I also think that the resulting design change illustrates that they discovered a flaw and remedied it in later revisions. We'll see what they offer, and I definitely won't make a stink about it.

As for the repair, I know this is one of the drawbacks of using SS. I won't be attempting the repair myself, but will bring it to a welding shop down the street from my garage.

Alan C.

The visible failure is in the HAZ, Heat Affected Zone, and could be due to IGA, Intergranular Corrosion. 304 is susceptible to this. 321 pretty much eliminates the problem.

Syeo86

A quick update.

Cargraphic is going to be sending a flex pipe over. I'll find a local welder to weld in the pipe and fix the crack.

It all should be as good as new!

Joe@Fabspeed

Syeo86 2007 987.1 Cayman S

its Joe at Fabspeed Motorsport USA.
If you are closeby Fabspeed Motorsport we would be happy to weld in your replacement flex balance tube and reinforce as needed any other welds. It appears that the weld sheared in a difficult to reach area and it broke at the HAZ.
its not a big deal to fix that for you while you wait and evaluate the car while she is in the air.

You wrote the message below and in particular you mentioned this "Does anyone have experience with fabbing exhausts for the 987.1? Would removal of the balance pipe cause a loss in power?"

Fabspeed Motorsport USA has been in the business of designing, engineering, dyno developing and street, race and pro-racing Porsche exhaust for over 25 years. The balance tube on your Porsche 987.1 that Cargraphic, Miltek and Fabspeed Motorsport utilizes in their Porsche exhaust designs adds mid-range torque, component strength, enhances sound quality and overall delivers smooth quality sports car sound. Any exhaust with-out an extra balance tube and ONLY an X pipe to a set of tips is a poor but cheap to manufacture design like you see on ebay from China.

These Porsche 987.1/987.2/981/GT4/ 718 exhaust with balance tube designs are from real established companies with years of actual engineering, development, and empirical testing. There are "many overly simplified new Internet exhaust systems" that dont offer balance tubes, dont offer CAD designed internal flow chambers and Dyno development.

The Cargraphic system is a good system and with some simple repairs you will be in good shape! We at Fabspeed have been making exhaust systems for 987.1 Boxster Caymans since the summer of 2004 when I bought a 987.1 Boxster ...............and over these 13+ years we have continually refined and improved the design of all of our Porsche 987.1 to GT4 systems. You might recall that Fabspeed Motorsport was chosen for the ITC Cayman trophy Cup racing series that ran for 4 years all across the United States.

If you would like a set of exhaust tips or headers with HJS German 200 cell sports racing catalytic converters and or Porsche 987.1 race headers that will truly compliment your existing Cargraphic exhaust simply let me know and or call our facility and we will hook you up. we have installed over 20 Cargraphic rear exhaust systems over the years and added Fabspeed headers to many Porsche cars to compliment a variety of customer supplied exhaust systems. we have SEEN it all and are here to help.

Systems in stock and we will beat any price. That from a 30+ year loyal PCA member and the 1st company to actually sponsor Porsche fans and Rennlist

warm regards
Joe Fabiani President Fabspeed Motorsport USA
=======================================================================

Syeo86 2007 987.1 Cayman S

I few years ago I picked up a cargraphic exhaust from a local P-car owner. Bolted it up, and it has been on the car ever since; roughly 4 years. This past weekend, I took the car out for a spin, and stopped at a Starbucks to grab a coffee. Upon firing the car up, I noticed a lot of burble, like I had an aggressive cam. I know these cars can burble during cold start, but at this point the car had been driven for 30 mins. I got home, checked the exhaust, and noticed the passenger side tip was hanging low. A quick peek under the car, and I noticed the balance pipe's weld had completely cracked. I'm not exactly sure how this happened, but either way I pulled the exhaust off the car.

The question is, do I completely remove the balance pipe? or do I have it welded back?

I'm not against removing, so long as I don't lose any power. I could careless about "drone".

Does anyone have experience with fabbing exhausts for the 987.1? Would removal of the balance pipe cause a loss in power?